(Photo by David Murray of <a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com/Jack-Kennedy/Chris-Matthews/9781451635089" target="_blank">Clear Eye Photo</a>)

Chris Matthews is best known for his opinionated and combative style on his MSNBC program, "Hardball with Chris Matthews." What's lesser known is that he's a former print journalist, was a long-time aide to Tip O'Neill, and that he grew up in an Irish Catholic family...of Republicans. All this played no small part in sewing the seeds of his admiration for a man he'd later write two books about, John F. Kennedy.

Our guest embodies two very different worlds – the ivory tower, and the fitness center. By day, Lianne McTavish is a professor of art history at the University of Alberta Canada, she lectures on the seventeenth-century history of the body, and its representation in medieval art. After class, she heads to the gym for weightlifting and toning. Her enthusiasm for fitness got her thinking about working out as a woman and led her to create a new identity as – “feminist figure girl” – and enter the world of competitive bodybuilding.

Jon Greenberg is executive editor here at NHPR and representing today for the Politifact New Hampshire’ Partnership, a joint effort that also includes the Nashua Telegraph and the Valley News. You can hear their truth-o-meter tests of candidate statements right here on Word of Mouth.

Today marks the 31st anniversary of the day that John Lennon was shot and killed on the sidewalk in front of his home in New York City. Reams of words have been written about that senseless, irrevocable act. But writer and critic Tim Riley prefers the parts of John Lennon’s story that are not so well known.

A story to restore your faith in music superstars this holiday season. Elvis Costello is rallying his fans to save money by *not* buying a shiny new gift box set of his music called “the return of the spectacular spinning songbook”. The title comes from a trademark of Costello’s live shows with his band, the Attractions…he invites audience members to get to go up on stage and spin a massive, game-show style wheel of song titles from his back-catalog…whatever comes up, Elvis & the Attractions play.

Car makers have a long standing tradition of keeping their forthcoming models under tight wraps, sometimes going to extreme lengths to disguise new cars even as they’re being road tested. But of course, wherever there’s a secret to be uncovered, there are spies trying to get a look under the hood… Photographers who will do just about anything to capture a clear picture of a car before it’s being manufactured.

For more than twenty-five years, readers have puzzled over the mysterious Harris Burdick. Here’s the legend: a man walks into a publishing house and drops off a set of 14 drawings…each with a tantalizing caption. He promises to return the next day with stories to accompany them, but is never seen again. The illustrations are eerie and unsettling…birds fly off wallpaper, a seated nun hovers placidly mid-air in a cathedral, a giant cruise ship plows through a venetian canal. Since then, thousands of school children have written stories sparked by these illustrations.

Sales have been brisk for guns this holiday season. Black Friday 2011 surpassed the single day record for FBI background check requests on gun customers by 32%. Today, a background check of sorts on the Freedom Group, which has swiftly become one of the world’s leading manufacturers and sellers of guns. Natasha Singer a reporter in the Sunday business section of the New York Times, investigated the shadowy Wall Street investment company that has quietly acquired some of America’s most venerable gun and ammo manufacturers.

The writer Douglas Adams wrote the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series In one of those books, the hero, Arthur Dent, is stranded on a planet populated by primitive people. Dent thinks to himself: I could show them the wristwatch! The internal combustion engine! The toaster! I’ll be crowned their emperor. The trouble is that without other humans around, he has no idea how to make any of those things. All he can make is a sandwich. After which he’s elevated to the high office of “sandwich maker.”

Hard times and new technology are making for a resurgence in old-school range robbery. But these are not the rope twirling thieves of yore – today’s black hats are using GPS tracking, four-wheelers, and apparently, some inside knowledge of the industry to wrangle cattle. Freelance writer Laura Zuckerman talks about the upward trend of cattle rustling in the American West.

The international conference on aids and sexually transmitted disease in Africa, or “ICASA” is convening this week in Ethiopia. Over the past few decades, activists and educators worldwide have endeavored to dispel rumors and misinformation about aids and people with aids. Today, more HIV positive people can disclose their status without shame and stigma. But there’s a downside to those advances. Relaxed attitudes toward HIV may be contributing to a trend of complacency toward the disease, even here in the United States.

“Clean coal,” refers to technologies that reduce heavy metal, carbon and other emissions from the burning of coal. The development of technologies that could, potentially, filter greenhouse gases and store CO2 permanently is moving ahead. “Carbon Sequestration” is an important step in testing the potential of clean coal technology. We spoke with Maggie Koerth-Baker, Science Editor for Boing-Boing; she visited a carbon sequestration demonstration in Alabama.

“Clean Coal,” refers to technologies that reduce heavy metal, carbon and other emissions from the burning of coal. The development of technologies that could, potentially, filter greenhouse gasses and store CO2 permanently is moving ahead. This week, a large demonstration of clean coal technology is being staged in Illinois, testing the viability of so-called “carbon sequestration,” an important step in testing the potential of clean coal technology.

Word of Mouth keeps its eye out for stories that are interesting, counterintuitive, many of which come from the world of science. It’s part of our mission to find the under-reported, simmering, surprising ideas that make us go “what?”

At the dawn of the MP3 era, music-lovers digitized their CD collections, racking up thousands of hours of songs on their home computers, while clearing out their shelves. The thrill was soon followed by the realization that most of us owned far more music than we had time to listen to.

A washed-up mixed martial arts champ’s comeback tells a bigger story about the meteoric rise of a sport once derided as human cockfighting. A mortician/blogger answers questions you’ve never dared to ask. And a campaign that’s been resurrected, despite being run like a Mel Brooks parody.

Plus, a competition for ultra-smart kids who prefer to solve big problems with an iconic building toy.

Who doesn’t love an underdog? A Rocky in the ring? With the audience for boxing eroding, the new ring is an octagonal cage. In popularity and profits, mixed martial arts, or MMA, has knocked out boxing in the past decade. The Ultimate Fighting Championship, MMA’s flagship event, was sold for two million dollars in 2001. Today, it’s worth an estimated one billion. Our guest today is a definitive UFC underdog. He’s a writer who dove George Plimpton-style into the grueling world of MMA and landed in the octagon.